Former MCB president pleads not guilty in fraud trial

The trial against Yau Wai Chu, the former president of Macau Chinese Bank (MCB), continued in the court of first instance, with the defendant once again pleading not guilty to charges of fraud involving 456 million patacas, the public broadcaster TDM reported.

During the hearing, Yau’s lawyers questioned the procedures and oversight involved in approving the loans at the center of the case.

Yau claimed the lending decisions were based on documents provided by the companies seeking the loans, as well as on-site inspections by bank employees to verify the projects’ operations.

However, the prosecution has alleged many of the projects financed by the loans were non-existent, including work on several integrated resort hotels and a large rapid transit line.

Yau argued the Monetary Authority of Macao and the Bank Association had urged the bank to ease lending policies due to the financial difficulties faced by companies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yau said she trusted her employees’ judgment and did not personally verify the authenticity of the projects.

Ryan Ng, a former high executive of MCB’s business department, also testified that the bank had granted the loans without customer guarantees based on trust in the borrowers.

Ng admitted that MCB did not ask for information about the purpose of the borrowed funds. VC